Mumbai: ‘More leaders hold benami flats in Adarsh’

A day before the state is expected to table its probe report into the Adarsh scam in the state legislature, senior BJP legislator Devendra Fadnavis alleged that other than the three former chief ministers in the dock, there are more current and former ministers who had grabbed flats in the society for themselves or their kin.

A day before the state is expected to table its probe report into the Adarsh scam in the state legislature, senior BJP legislator Devendra Fadnavis alleged that other than the three former chief ministers in the dock, there are more current and former ministers who had grabbed flats in the society for themselves or their kin.

Speaking in the state assembly on Thursday, Fadnavis alleged that the politicians had used proxy owners to get benami flats in the society, and said the money trail into payments for these flats validated this. Fadnavis further alleged that cash transfers through a long chain of accounts had been made to people officially listed as flat owners.

“The probe panel did not have powers to investigate and it depended on sworn affidavits from the people under scanner. However, the CBI should know about these cash transfers, which establish the real owners. If the CBI doesn’t know, this we will provide them the information,” Fadnavis told the lower house.

Unconfirmed reports say the probe panel has given clean chit to three former CMs Vilasrao Deshmukh, Sushilkumar Shinde and Ashok Chavan, who quit in the light of the scam in November 2010, but has nailed senior bureaucrats who gave various clearances to the society.

Chavan has been accused of getting civilians, including his kin, plush flats in the building meant primarily for defense personnel, Kargil war heroes and widows. Deshmukh, who passed away last year, had been accused of granting extra FSI to the building and changing the reservation of a plot, while Shinde was accused of allotting land for the society.

In January 2011, the state asked the panel of justice AA Patil and former bureaucrat P Subr-amaniam to verify the ownership of the plot on which Adarsh was built and investigate whether the said land was reserved defence personnel, and other aspects of the scam. The CBI is also probing the case independently.